The Internet, which is a human centered connectivity network where humans generate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of Things (IoT) where distributed entities, such as things, exchange and process information without human intervention. The Internet of Everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the Big Data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, such as “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “Security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, Machine Type Communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched.
Such an IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to human life by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing Information Technology (IT) and various industrial applications.
For example, a communication method which interconnects a plurality of sensors and gateways installed in a particular area or building is drawing attention. For the communications between the sensors and the gateways, they require pairing between them. Typically, a gateway supporting Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) can detect and pair with a sensor device without separately switching to a pairing mode. However, a gateway supporting Zigbee, Bluetooth, or Z-wave needs to enter the pairing mode to achieve the pairing. For example, the gateway supporting Zigbee can operate in the pairing mode for a certain time when a user presses a key button or a menu button to switch to the pairing mode, and scans and pairs with a sensor device. Herein, when a certain time passes after the pairing mode switch button is pressed, the gateway supporting Zigbee switches from the pairing mode back to a normal mode. For example, FIG. 1 depicts a conventional pairing method of a plurality of sensors and gateways supporting Zigbee, Bluetooth, or Z-wave. As illustrated in FIG. 1, when the gateways 100-1 through 100-N and the sensors 101-1 through 101-N are deployed, the gateways 100-1 through 100-N operate in the normal mode which does not support the pairing until a user input occurs and accordingly cannot not detect a sensor device to pair with. Hence, after installing the sensor 101-2, the user needs to press in person the pairing mode switch buttons of the gateways 100-1 and the sensor 101-2 in order to pair the sensor 101-2 with the gateway 100-1 as illustrated in FIG. 1. Upon detecting the pairing mode switch button pressed by the user, the sensor 101-2 and the gateway 100-1 can enter the pairing mode, scan each other, and thus fulfill the pairing. However, the user has to personally select the pairing buttons of the sensors 101-1 through 101-N and the pairing button of the corresponding gateway 100-1 through 100-N in every installation of the sensors 100-1 through 100-N. In addition, when the gateways 100-1 through 100-N are installed inaccessibly (e.g., at a ceiling of a building), the user has great difficulty in selecting the pairing button for the installation of the sensors 101-1 through 101-N due to the location of the gateways 100-1 through 100-N. In the conventional method, with the plurality of the gateways 100-1 through 100-N, it is difficult for the user to determine which gateway should be paired with each of the sensors 101-1 through 101-N for the sake of efficiency. Further, since the user personally selects the sensor and the gateway in the conventional method, the user can determine an incorrect or suboptimal gateway to pair with the sensor among the plurality of the gateways. In this case, security can be compromised.